Taylor Mac, Chapter II (1836-1896), San Francisco

September 17 @ 5:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Event Navigation

Taylor Mac’s groundbreaking performance art concept A 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC is “a must-see for anyone who wants to see a kinder, gentler society.” (Huffington Post)

A 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC is Taylor Mac’s multi-year effort to chart a subjective history of the United States through is a unique mash-up of music, history, performance, and art that were popular throughout the country, and in its disparate communities, from 1776 to the present day.

“One of the great experiences of my life.” -The New York Times

Taylor Mac (who prefers the gender pronoun “judy”) is a New York-based theater artist, playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, cabaret performer, performance artist, director, and producer whose many talents combine in the spectacular A 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC. Taylor recently won the 2017 Edward M. Kennedy Award for Drama inspired by American History and was a 2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama. A 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC had the distinct honor of being included on an unprecedented three New York Times “Best of…” lists in 2016: Performance, Theater and Classical Music.

The concert will be presented as four six-hour chapters, together making the first complete presentation since Taylor’s historic 24-hour marathon performance at Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse last fall. Tickets can be purchased as single chapters, or audience members can purchase a four performance series – the pièce de résistance in it’s entirety, an experience that The New York Times’ Wesley Morris called “one of the great experiences of my life.”

Chapter I (1776-1836) September 15: The American Revolution from the perspective of the yankee doodle dandy, the early women’s lib movement, an epic battle between drinking songs and early temperance songs, a dream sequence where the audience is blindfolded and the heteronormative narrative as colonization.

Chapter II (1836-1896) September 17: Walt Whitman and Stephen Foster go head to head for the title of Father of the American Song, culminating in the queerest Civil War Reenactment in history. Oh, and: a production of THE MIKADO set on Mars.

Chapter III (1896-1956) September 22: A Jewish tenement, a WWI trench, a speakeasy, a depression, a zoot suit riot all make the white people flee the cities.

Chapter IV (1956-the present) September 24: Bayard Rustin’s March on Washington leads to a queer riot, sexual deviance as revolution, radical lesbians, and a community building itself while under siege.

Taylor Mac seduces you, breaks your heart, patches it back up again and sews sequins along the scars.” – The Irish Times

“Taylor Mac gave me one of the great experiences of my life. I’ve slept on it, and I’m sure.” – The New York Times

“The greatest theatrical feat ever…” – OUT 100 2016

The New York Times 2016 Best Theatre and Best Performances of 2016 lists